Heavy floods in Afghanistan claim 20 lives; cars and homes swept away

March 3, 2019 10:44 AM |
Skymet Weather Team

Yesterday, heavy floods devastated the southern parts of Afghanistan, thereby leading to several adults and children reported getting drowned in this mishap. An official report was released by the United Nations (UN) regarding the heavy loss that has been reported as a result of heavy floods.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, heavy rains have led to killing of 20 people, including children. Kandahar city and six other districts including Herat province as well as Zheri, Dand, Damand, Arghandab, Spinboldak and Takh have become the victims of these floods. The floods have even devastated 2000 homes and swept away several cars.

‘Hundreds of houses in Herat province were destroyed in flash floods, Afghan government officials said’. Moreover, at least 10 people, including children, are still missing in Arghandab, Daman, Spin Boldak and Dand districts.

A large number of Kochi families, consisting of 500 people, were stuck on the bank of a river. The Disaster Management Authority then conveyed an urgent requirement for air support to rescue them.

Public places such as schools, mosques and several government buildings in Kandahar have been vacated to avoid any further loss of life.

Around 100 families have been shifted to the Haji camp building in Daman. The government is making arrangement for providing them shelter, blankets and food.

In the words of a senior official working for the Afghanistan Natural Disaster Management Authority in Kabul, “the flooding was a result of rugged mountainous terrain and heavy snowfall, which combined with the lack of proper roads, that failed to provide a pace for rainfall to flow properly.”

According to Skymet Weather, these floods were a result of a series of Western Disturbances that had kept hitting the region one after the other. Data- wise, in the last 30 hours, approximately 97 mm of rainfall has been recorded in the affected areas.

However, now with the systems moving away towards Pakistan region, we expect conditions to improve further and rains to continue with light to moderate intensity for the next 24 hours.